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When Lars Magnus Ericsson installed a telephone in his car, he proved you could communicate from the road. But while the first mobile phone was indeed mobile, it was anything but simple to use.

Ericsson drove around Sweden and, when it was time to place a call, he would pull off to the side of the road next to telephone poles. Then his wife, Hilda, would take out two long sticks and hook them over a pair of telephone wires. Ericsson would then crank a handle on the phone to get a signal from the operator.

Pretty slick for 1910.

The Apple Watch just went on sale in Russia on July 31, but if you’re looking to get something extra special to celebrate your favorite Russian dictators leaders, luxury design firm Caviar has the perfect timepiece for you.

A new video mockup shows how Force Touch might work on the iPhone 6s, the less-expensive Apple smartphone expected to hit shelves next month.

Given that we’ve already seen how Force Touch is implemented on the Apple Watch and MacBook, this neat conceptual video shows some of the many ways we may use the technology in new iPhones.

Apple Music now offers replays of several Beats 1 shows through a feature called Beats 1 Replays.

These full replays aren’t particularly easy to find, but here’s how you can locate them and catch up with shows you’ve missed in their entirety.

MadeWorn made a name for itself putting insanely detailed engravings on expensive Rolexes for celebrities willing to shell out thousands of dollars for the custom timepieces. Now the Los Angeles-based company has put founder and artist Blaine Halvorson’s touch on the Apple Watch — and it looks absolutely crazy.

New 5K 27-inch iMacs and a 4K 21.5-inch model are almost certainly on the the way, according to code discovered in yesterday’s sixth OS X El Capitan beta.

An in-depth look at the latest version of El Capitan reveals three new files referencing the new Mac resolutions, while an accompanying image suggests the exterior design of the machines will remain largely unchanged from current models.

OK, play time is over. Last week’s article on five things to do with your obsolete Apple TV was meant to bring some light humor to your day, but we heard your comments loud and clear. Many of you looking for legitimate tips on what to do with an old Apple TV felt misled by the headline when you wound up scrolling through a sarcastic list. For that, we apologize. I apologize.

But we’re not all talk and no action at Cult of Mac. Without further ado, here is an actual list of nine things – four extras because we like you a lot – that you can do with your old or soon-to-be-obsolete Apple TV. For real this time. Seriously.

Apple has touted the Mac’s resistance to viruses for decades as a selling point over Windows PCs, but a team of researchers have created a new firmware worm for Mac that might just make you want to go back to doing work on good old pencil and paper.

Two white-hat hackers discovered that several vulnerabilities affecting PC makers can also bypass Apple’s renowned security to wreak havoc on Mac firmware. The two created a proof-of-concept of the worm called Thunderstrike 2 that allows firmware attacks to be spread automatically from Mac to Mac. Devices don’t even need to be networked for the worm to spread, and once it’s infected your machine the only way to remove it is to open up your Mac and manually reflash the chip.

Here’s a preview of Thunderstrike 2 in action:

Using a running app to log your workouts is a great way to track your progress and stay motivated. But have you considered who actually owns the workout data you are logging?

If you ever decide to switch apps, you might be in for a surprise. While some services, like Strava, make it easy to transfer your data, with others it can be difficult or even impossible.

If you’ve been having problems with Apple Music and iCloud Music Library incorrectly matching songs in your library, you’re far from the only one. It turns out the reason is that Apple Music doesn’t use the same method for matching songs you own as iTunes Match does. This results in significantly more errors and frustrated users.

Though iTunes Match used acoustic fingerprinting to identify songs you own and match them for all of your devices, Apple Music uses the metadata of those songs. That means if you change something as simple as the title and artist, it could match to an entirely different song despite the unchanged audio.

Who would’ve thought emojis could prove so controversial?

Following on from the yellow skin color accusations and Russian LGBT emojis attempted banning, the nonprofit group New Yorkers Against Gun Violence (NYAGV) has launched a new hashtag entitled #DisarmTheiPhone — calling for Apple to “remove the gun emoji [from iOS] and take a stand for stricter gun accessibility in America.”

Check out a video for the campaign below:

No-one does ads with more consistent high quality than Apple. That’s why it’s kind of fun to go back to a time when getting the word out about new products was less about pushing out a sleek new video on YouTube and more about radio spots designed to give potential customers the hard sell.

Stephen Hackett of website 512 Pixels was recently given a stack of old Apple documents, and among them were scripts for three Apple-approved radio ads promoting the Apple IIc during the holiday quarter of 1984: the same year Apple unveiled the original Mac.

Check them out below.

For me, it’s the burning question of 2015: “Should I buy an Apple Watch?”

As editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, everybody’s always asking me if Apple’s smartwatch is a must-buy. The simple answer is there’s no simple answer, for reasons that might surprise you.

The long-rumored update for Apple TV will launch soon, according to a new report that claims Cupertino will launch its radically new set-top box — with thoroughly upgraded hardware and software — in September.

Steve Jobs was famously opposed to including a stylus with the iPad, but even he might have changed his mind had he caught a glimpse of the futuristic texture-sensing input device Apple just patented.

According to a pair of patent applications published today, Apple is working on stylus with in-built camera which would allow it to detect the surface over which it is passed and reproduce these textures for the user — even down to replicating the feel of different fabrics.

Legendary German camera maker Leica spent nearly 20 years patenting technology that would take focusing out of the hands of photographers. As with the 35 mm still camera the company created in 1925, Leica stood ready to once again revolutionize photography, this time with an autofocus system.

But after spending the last part of the 1970s working on prototypes, Leica dropped plans to bring autofocus to consumers. Leica figured its customers already knew how to focus their cameras.

“There’s an element of truth in that,” said Heinz Richter, who was a member of the Leica Historical Society of America when he held one of the first autofocus cameras at a meeting in Minneapolis in 1980. “Leica used to be an extremely conservative company. The autofocus mechanism as they were available then didn’t fit into the company’s ideal of precise focusing.”

The Internet has gone crazy for selfie sticks ever since a couple of Twitter users posted modified images of Hollywood’s toughest characters with their guns swapped out for the hated tech accessories.

The Photoshop swap really has a way of removing all the menace from a person — especially if their new phone has a ladybug case on it. You can see some examples below (as well as some we put together because we just couldn’t help ourselves).

Apple’s forthcoming $5 billion “spaceship” Apple campus may be designed to squeeze in a massive 13,000 employees, or the equivalent of 35 fully-filled Boeing 747s, but don’t worry: it’s got plenty of space for you, too.

According to Apple’s plans for the new headquarters, the Apple 2 campus will include a glass-walled structure for visitors, boasting a 2,386-square-foot cafe, 10,114-square-foot gift shop, and rooftop viewing space, where visitors can gaze out over Apple’s domain while Tim Cook tells you that everything the light touches is his kingdom.

The third public beta of Apple’s upcoming operating system, OS X 10.11 El Capitan, was seeded to public testers today, one week after the release of El Capitan beta 2.

Apparently, it isn’t enough that our phones, appliances, TVs, thermostats and light bulbs are getting Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections so we can control them remotely and teach them our habits. No — some enterprising souls are looking at their stuff and just gasping at how dumb all of it is.

And so, things that we may never have thought of slapping the “smart” prefix on are getting all wired up and clever. Here are a few of the more interesting ones.

It is one thing to read about a madman. But what if you could feel like those were your hands around the victim’s throat, eyeballs bulging, his gasping breath brushing against your face?

Charles Dickens’ A Madman’s Manuscript feels all the more creepy when you experience the book in interactive form with the new iPhone and iPad app by iClassics.

If digital media is tearing us away from analog books, then the growing collection of illustrated works reimagined by iClassics ensures classic tails not only stay alive but get a new life with illustrations that move with the touch of your screen.

Wireless charging has been on Apple fanboys’ wish list of iPhone features for a few years now, and while it’s unlikely that Apple will bring the technology to the iPhone 6s, Qualcomm just made a breakthrough in wireless charging that would be perfect for the iPhone’s metal body.

I dropped everything to make apps for the Apple Watch. I’ve owned the Watch from day one and I admit it is has its shortcomings, but oh my does it have potential.

The device convinced my co-founders and me to start Tap Get to work exclusively on Apple Watch apps — early, while the rest of the world is still making up its mind about smartwatches and other wearables.

The Aaron Sorkin-penned film Steve Jobs has been chosen as the centerpiece movie of the 53rd annual New York Film Festival and will be screened at the the event on Saturday, October 3rd.

Starring Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs, and Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak, the film is based on Walter Isaacson’s bestselling biography. The movie won’t be released publicly until this fall, but NY Film Festival director Kent Jones’ review heaps praise on the film, calling it “dramatically concentrated, yet beautifully expansive; it’s extremely sharp; it’s wildly entertaining.”

Director Danny Boyle had the following to say about the honor:

The iPad mini 3 was a virtual afterthought last year, but in 2015 it’s going to get a serious upgrade, according to a new report.

Instead of the glorified iPad mini 2 we got with last year’s launch, the iPad mini 4 is said to be a miniature version of the iPad Air 2. That means 8-megapixel rear iSight camera, anti-reflective coating on a fully laminated display, and 6.1mm thickness.

Oh, and contrary to previous rumors, we might get a new iPad Air this year, too.